Monica Yeakel and Haley Hicklen will join the lacrosse program as assistant coaches, head coach Jennifer Ulehla announced Monday.

Yeakel and Hicklen are Ulehla’s first additions to the lacrosse program since she was hired in June.

Yeakel owned and directed the Diamonds Lacrosse Club for 11 years before signing on with the Colonials. Before her club experience, Yeakel spent 11 years at the helm of UMBC’s lacrosse program, nabbing two Northeast Conference Coach of the Year nods. The Retrievers made two NCAA tournament appearances and accumulated five NEC Championships during her tenure.

In college, she started on defense all four years at Loyola and helped push the squad to the National Collegiate Semifinals in 1990 and 1994. She earned Intercollegiate Women’s Lacrosse Coaches Association All-American First Team honors in her senior campaign with the team.

Hicklen spent the summer with the Baltimore Brave of the Women’s Professional Lacrosse League. She logged 120 minutes and made 15 saves to help the Brave nab their first WPLL Championship in team history.

Hicklen graduated from Florida in 2019 and achieved program-bests in saves (556), groundballs (194) and minutes played by a goalie (nearly 3,900). She nabbed four conference championships and made four NCAA Tournament appearances.

She also garnered three straight Goalkeeper of the Year nods, earning her first two honors from the Big East in 2017 and 2018 and nabbing her third from the American Athletic Conference in 2019.

The IWLCA named her 2018 Second-Team All-American and she was named to the Big East All-Tournament Team three times and the AAC All-Tournament Team once.

The Colonials earned their best conference record in four years last season but fell short of postseason play. All 29 players are set to return for the 2020 season.